Kingsbury Toys They just don’t make toys like they used to. Can you think of a single toy in any store today that could withstand 665 pounds of pressure and still be in good enough condition to wrap and put under the Christmas tree before being subjected to a child’s regular use? Well, a Kingsbury cast iron toy aerial ladder truck could. It’s right there in black and white a picture of three men standing on it in an advertisement.

Ruggedness, power and beauty were the qualities boasted of by the Kingsbury Toy Company, an operation Harry T. Kingsbury of Keene purchased in 1894 from James Wilkins. Wilkins started Wilkins Toy Company in a one-story wooden building in Keene in 1890. Free Kingsbury Toy Car Identification Guide

More than 250 of these toys, formerly on display in the lobby of the Kingsbury Corporation in Keene until the building was flooded in October, were exhibited throughout the summer at the Historical Society of Cheshire County. An opening reception for “Because We Like Children, The Toys of Wilkins and Kingsbury, 1890-1942,” during 2016.